CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
September 4, 2005
PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Our congregation Our students
Our nation, military, and leaders James and David in the military Leon is out of the
Navy and home
Various friends, relatives and co-workers
Hurricane hit areas
HAPPY LABOR DAY!
SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS:
5th - Sherry Everett 6th - Don Henderson, Coco Ingram &nbbsp; 8th - Heather Mearns
LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
We all face temptation or trials of one kind or another, and we often give into them. Then we chalk it up to our weaknesses or blame others for giving in. At times, in humility, we admit our weakness and in confession, repent of the sins we have committed. Twice in the gospels, Jesus offers an example of a prayer. The first is found in the Sermon on the Mount as part of His stirring sermon of a radical life. The second was in response to the disciples question, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer,” we have debated its relevance especially in churches of Christ. One issue deals with the word “kingdom,” which has been viewed as “church.” While that might be true in a couple of texts, the word “kingdom” means rule. The request of the prayer is that God’s rule comes into our lives. Another issue is prayer itself. Does God actually answer prayer in such a way that we know it or is it just a command to be obeyed? With these in mind, other parts are ignored such as the temptation aspect.
C.S. Lewis said the following: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is…That is why bad people know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find our strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means -- the only complete realist” (from Mere Christianity). This is a powerful statement. How strong is temptation? Resist it and see!
We look at Jesus and read the words, but do we understand that they are more than words. Jesus Himself faced multiple temptations, some of which are recorded. We are familiar with the three from the evil one after forty days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-17). There are many others. One of the most searing was “If you are the Son of God…” This questions who He is and challenges His mission. “Jesus’ whole public career was marked by ‘trials’ of one sort or another -- by what he, and the evangelists, saw as a running battle with the powers of evil, whether in the form of possessed souls shrieking in the synagogues or angry souls challenging in the marketplace. The fact that Jesus was not spared these trials, but had to face them at their fiercest, suggests a clue as to the meaning of this controversial clause…” (N.T. Wright, The Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer, www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Christian_Prayer.htm). Temptations came to Him even among His followers. In the upper room discussions during the last Passover celebration, He would tell them, “You are those who have stood by me in my trials” (Luke 22:28). One aspect of The Lord’s Prayer is an invitation to share in His experiences and sufferings and to find the spiritual strength to endure them.
What then does “Do not lead us to ‘the testing’” or “Lead us not into temptation” mean, especially for us? One question we can ask is “who is testing whom, with what intent, and with what result” (Wright, ibid.)? We have traditionally seen this as a request to avoid being tempted, or having our faith tested by God. Another way of looking at it is that testing is a necessary part of our Christian life. In crisis, we face choices, or temptations. The easy way is to lie like Peter did around the fire when he denied Jesus three times. Just before that, in the Garden, Jesus said, “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Luke 22:46). N.T. Wright states that the early church believed that the Cross was the great temptation. Some would then ask why be concerned about temptations? Wright proposes that the testing isn’t ours but our testing of God. Should we be surprised about this? If we go back in Biblical history to the Exodus, we would see a people who tested God ten times from the crossing of the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. From a human perspective, many wanted to go back to Egypt, the wilderness being too tough to live in, and not what they thought the Exodus was all about. Egypt was drawing them back, a temptation. But in their lust, they murmured and grumbled against God, testing Him. This is not merely complaint; this is a direct challenge to God’s rule and provisions, to His promise to lead this people to the Promised Land. “And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not’” (Exodus 17:7). The Psalmists recalled this event several times to remind Israel not to do this (see 7:18, 41, 56; 95:9; 106:14). Ahaz used the idea of not testing God to avoid God’s rule (see Isaiah 7:12).
This brings us to 1 Corinthians 10. Paul uses the Exodus event to challenge the Corinthians view that in reality they were testing God by their attitudes and divisions as well as by being tempted by the pagan society they lived in. Notice first that Paul compares the nation going through the Red Sea with our baptism into Christ. This comparison becomes the new Exodus for us (Wright’s words). We are now the generation in the Wilderness heading for the Promised Land, that is eternity with God. Paul calls us pilgrims (Philippians 3:20). But Paul goes on to say that we need to listen to the warnings as well. The Israelites rebelled, not just ten times, but many times over the course of forty years (thirty-eight of those years due to ten unbelievers influencing the nation). They failed and we too must be careful or we will too (see 10:11-12).
Then comes a very familiar text. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (10:13). We come back to C.S. Lewis’ quote from above. Temptations or testings will come. God rules and He will not leave us alone in the valley of deepest darkness (see Psalm 23:4). “Paul will not rest content with simply telling the Corinthians how to behave and chiding them if they go wrong. He will teach them to think of themselves as the people of the true Exodus, and within that framework show them how the moral struggles they face (including the temptation to devise tests to see how strong their Lord is) -- are the equivalent of the temptations which brought the wilderness generation to ruin. They must now succeed where their typological predecessors failed” (Wright). This then brings us back to The Lord’s Prayer. We are praying that we might be spared the temptations faced by Jesus, yet knowing that as His followers, we will face difficult times (see Revelation).
Expanded, it also includes temptations from the evil one. This might include putting God to the test, challenging His rule. This could be seen in the “I’ll do it my way” philosophy so popular today. Other temptations could include idolatry (money, fame, power) or grumbling (not getting my way). “Thus ‘Lead us not into temptation’ would then mean, in that broader context, ‘Do not let us be led into temptation [from which we cannot escape]” (Wright). The prayer is intended to keep the believer faithful to God.
I believe that we can legitimately pray this prayer. We have the desire to follow the will of God, recognize the rule of God, His provisions for us (daily bread and the manna in the wilderness being another Exodus theme), the willingness to forgive, and the challenge not to be led into temptations yet prepared to face certain trials. It is a challenging prayer for all of us, one lived by Jesus as our example.
George B. Mearns